-Less “gem value” from tasks/LTs (in fact, I have yet to see a report of anyone getting raw gems from a LT since the patch)
-An undisclosed portion of raw gems converted to gem keys, which are far less valuable to a lot of players
-Diamonds being pure RNG unless you’re willing to pay gems or real money

It shouldn’t be any surprise why people are upset about this, regardless of any justification of “players are earning more gold”. Raw gem income got kicked in the teeth while a new raw gem sink was added.

I disagree about the $5 pack being a “good deal”. Buying it once or twice doesn’t give enough benefit to be noticeable and $150/month on a game (the name is daily pack) is ludicrous.

Absolutely bang on the money. Which is something I’m no longer going to spend on the game. I’m vip 6, my Mrs is 5 and I’ve paid for both. For the most part vip chests haven’t been good value and now I’m not able to earn as many gems to even bother with them. This is a great way to piss off your paying customers. This person has every right to be angry and so am I. Some shitty flash sale is about as much use as peeing on a towering inferno. Furthermore it’s an insult.

Sentinels are by far the worst gem sink in the game. That new dungeon bounty seems ok. But 340 gems per week on sentinels is absurd. Most competitive players still pay for them religiously, so I guess the devs did it right.

Removing a bunch of gems rewards from the game alone is not enough to incentive actually buying gems again. They were undoubtedly not functional as a premium currency with the numbers that were handed out pre-patch, so I understand why this was done. At the same time, you have left it in a state where the number of gems on hand between people at the same stage of the game varies by amounts in the tens of thousands. Also, the purchasing power of a gem is still absurly low at endgame - ~4500 for a mythic during its period exclusive while getting gold and other incidentals you may or not still need to ~4200 after a 3 month wait while getting nothing else with it. The purchasing power of a gem is otherwise still account specific and steadily drops both with the age of the game (as more troops are added) and with the age of the account (as more troops are collected, making it less desirable/useless to obtain more of these troops). Gems are still not really a functional “premium currency” without addressing this, including a review of the prices which as far as I remember have not been changed since I started playing the game, despite having been steadily devalued over time. These need to be examined, as well as adding more relevant packs for players late in the game (reasonably priced, not bundled with a bunch of dead-end or useless resources). This may incentivize late game players to start spending again if you manage to regain their trust. A pack that actually scaled with progression would be preferable (subscribership for plus a percentage of the gems you are earning, for example).

Arelana:

I disagree about the $5 pack being a “good deal”. Buying it once or twice doesn’t give enough benefit to be noticeable and $150/month on a game (the name is daily pack) is ludicrous.

I believe the daily pack referenced was this one:

225 gems for 5 dollars is a “better deal” for gems than any other offer in the shop, including the other packs. However, problem with this one is that 15 daily gems is not a usable quantity with respect to the purchasing power of a gem. Running this constantly will net you an extra mythic, on average, in about 280 - 300 days, for about $95 to $100. Even this gets you not much bang for your buck, considering having to wait all this time. And that is post crafting and task nerf, as pre-patch, you had “enough” gems to get the monthly mythic and “old” mythics cost at least three times this much when they were available through other means.

VIP 5 for me + VIP 3 for my son’s account.
I put money on the game not because I needed it but because I wanted to support the team.
These days are gone. I haven’t bought anything for a long time and am not planning to spend anything anymore.
Now devs only care about releasing new content. bugs are not fixed anymore and are just completely ignored.